AVES
The surname Aves is of English provenance, a designation that can be traced back to the Middle English period. An early source indicates that it derives from the word ave, which meant “bird” and was employed as a nickname for individuals possessing bird-like qualities – a graceful or agile nature.
In separate medieval records the spelling of the family name has appeared in a variety of forms, including Aveson, Avison, Aviss and avis. These variants reflect the way the name was adapted to contemporary phonetics and orthographic practices. The form Aves itself is relatively scarce but was noted in parish registers of London in the later seventeenth century, such as the christening of Richard, son of Roger and Sarah Aves, at Allhallows the Less in 1655 and the marriage of Edmund Aves to Sarah Morgane at St. James, Duke's Place in 1692.
There is further evidence that the surname Aves descended from the personal name Avis, which is an exceedingly old Germanic name introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The earliest form of this personal name was Haduwig – now the German Hedwig – meaning “refuge in war”. The name was softened in French as Edwige and, in the Norman dialect, became Havoise. Through a process of further contraction it evolved to Havoisia, Avicia, Avice and ultimately the short form avis. Records from the late twelfth century, such as the listing of Walter Auices in the 1186 Register of St. Benet of Holme, Norfolk, illustrate that the name existed in various spellings prior to its consolidation as a hereditary surname.
The surname appears in a number of statutory and ecclesiastical documents that date from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. These include Thomas Avyce in the Book of Fees of Berkshire in 1220, Thomas Avis in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk in 1524, and Ricardus filius Avice listed in Staffordshire’s 1332 Subsidy Rolls. These entries confirm that holders of the name were resident throughout England, with a concentration in Norfolk and Suffolk during the medieval period.
By the late pre‑industrial era the family had become even less common, with the name largely confined to a handful of individuals in the United Kingdom. The surviving heraldic description associated with the family depicts a blue shield bearing three gold wheat sheaves, while the crest is described as a dexter hand, vested, cuffed, holding an anchor. Such symbols are in keeping with the agrarian and maritime associations that have historically tied many English surnames to local occupation or geography.
Typical given names associated with the Aves surname
Male
- Andrew
- Dameon
- David
- John
- Jonathan
- Martyn
- Michael
- Nicholas
- Paul
- Peter
- Richard
- Robert
- Roger
- Stephen
Female
- Amanda
- Claire
- Elizabeth
- Joan
- Karen
- Kelly
- Margaret
- Nicola
- Sarah
- Sharon
- Susan
Similar and related surnames
Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.
How to communicate the surname Aves in...
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There are approximately 940 people named Aves in the UK. That makes it roughly the 7,725th most common surname in Britain. Around 14 in a million people in Britain are named Aves.
